Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
involved a number of different companies, which had created their own workshops for maintenance and constructions. The most important were Railway Works in Piraeus, originally operated by Athens-Piraeus Railways (SAP, which later transformed into
Hellenic Electric Railways
The Hellenic Electric Railways (, ) was a private owned company member of British company "Power and Traction Company Ltd" which operated and extended the present Line 1 (Athens Metro), Line 1 of the Athens Metro, from 14 April 1926 to 31 Decemb ...
, EIS), and
Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways
Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways or SPAP ( "Siderodromi Pireos Athinon Peloponisou" or Σ.Π.Α.Π. (S.P.A.P.); Martin, Percy Falcke. ''Greece of the Twentieth Century''. T. Fisher Unwin, 1913. p 193OSE), which, in addition to maintenance, repair and rebuilding, have entirely constructed a significant number of railroad cars, mostly between 1880 and 1960. Other noteworthy constructions included a small number of electric
tram
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
s (clearly copies of a Dick Kerr model) built by EIS in 1939, and one of Greece's first Diesel locomotives, designed and built by SPAP in 1961.
The "crown jewel" of the Piraeus Works was the royal wagon, built in 1888 as a present to King
George I of Greece
George I ( Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, romanized: ''Geórgios I''; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination on 18 March 1913.
Originally a Danish prince, George was born in Copenhage ...
. The luxurious vehicle was so admired, that an entire engineering project was organized in order to transport and present it in the 1888 "Olympia Fair" held in
Zappeion
The Zappeion (, ) is a large, palatial building next to the National Gardens of Athens in the heart of Athens, Greece. It is generally used for meetings and ceremonies, both official and private and is one of the city's most renowned modern land ...
. It survives to date, exhibited in the
Railway Museum of Athens
The Railway Museum of Athens, Greece, was founded by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) in 1978.
It was located at 4 Siokou Street in Athens, but the collection has since been moved to the former MPR Depot site in Lefka, Piraeus in 2019 ( ...
.
References
*I. Zartaloudis, D. Karatolos, D. Koutelidis, G. Nathenas, S. Fasoulas, A. Filippoupolitis, ''Οι Ελληνικοί Σιδηρόδρομοι (Hellenic Railways)'', Μίλητος (Militos), Alimos (1997)
*''Ελληνικοί Ηλεκτρικοί Σιδηρόδρομοι (Hellenic Electric Railways) 1869-1969'', ΕΗΣ (EIS), Athens (1970)